


Playing Doctor

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Doctor Doctor [1]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-19
Updated: 2011-10-19
Packaged: 2017-10-24 18:38:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emily had probably interrupted dessert before breakfast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing Doctor

**Author's Note:**

> This series and this pairing was born strictly from crazy conversations with aspenlit. It started because she wanted to maybe see some Emily/Tom Barton in Whoever's in New England. I thought it was a nice moment but she was already juggling too many men. Then we started joking around talking about Elizabeth dating him and Elizabeth being this kickass cougar....and a fic was born. Actually a whole series was born but I never found a name for it and this pairing all but disappeared from my head when aspenlit disappeared. It doesnt matter though, they were still great for their moment in time. Also, if you dont remember, Tom Barton is the emergency room doctor from Faceless, Nameless played by Christopher Cousins.

The smell of coffee welcomed Emily when she walked into the house. Oh really? Her mother was not supposed to have coffee; it was against the rules. Decaf was allowed but Elizabeth balked at the idea. Emily turned her on to tea, decaf, but also many flavors.

She was surprised that her mother took to it. Apparently it wasn’t hard because she was cheating. She knew Emily was coming and she was brewing coffee. She had some nerve. Today she was picking up her mother for an afternoon of bonding and shopping in Manchester. It was Emily’s suggestion and she was proud of herself for thinking of it.

Elizabeth thought it was a good idea, since Emily’s birthday was Monday, to have a birthday spree. Emily didn’t want to think about her birthday but as usual her mother could not be swayed or denied. It had been years since Emily celebrated a birthday…October 12th was just another day. Gabe used to always go all out. It was the one day of the year he refused to listen to Emily’s protests and over-indulged. He called it his lucky day because the most wonderful woman came into the world.

She could remember the last one they celebrated. It was her 34th and he was quite sick. For just one day they both pretended he wasn’t. He invited his old friend Placido Domingo to the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. The New York Symphony Orchestra, which Gabe played cello for over 25 years, accompanied him for a rendition of Nessun Dorma. It was Emily’s favorite opera song; she’d heard it live before. This time it meant so much more.

Tears stabbed her eyes just thinking about it. Dammit, she needed to push aside those thoughts and focus on strangling her mother. She thought Elizabeth was doing well; Emily kept an eye on her since her return to Newberry. All this time she was smuggling coffee. She stalked through the large foyer, living room, and dining room, anger rising as the smell of coffee grew stronger.

“Mother, what the…MOTHER!” Emily covered her eyes. Her mother was being kissed; her mother was being fondled. Oh my God, Emily had just walked into the Twilight Zone. “Oh my God, oh my God.”

“Emily, what are you doing here?”

“I think the question is what are you doing?”

“This is my house. Oh, for God’s sake, uncover your eyes.”

“I think I'm blind in at least one of them.” She slowly uncovered her eyes. Her mother still stood in Dr. Tom Barton’s arms. He just wore pajama pants; Elizabeth was dressed in a nightie and a silk robe. The robe was only half on. Oh my God.

“Perhaps I should leave you two alone.” Tom said.

“You promised me breakfast, Doctor.” Elizabeth looked at him.

There had been times in her life when Emily felt like a third wheel. When her mother looked at Dr. Barton and his arms tightened around her, she felt non-existent. She didn’t know whether to be intrigued or pissed off. She just cleared her throat. She was a few steps from crossing her arms and stomping her foot.

“I will make you breakfast; you talk to Emily.” He said.

“We’ll go to the den.” Elizabeth said. She pulled her robe tighter as she walked out of the room.

Emily had no choice but to follow. It was hard to take her eyes off Tom. She had to eventually so she wouldn’t run into a wall.

“What are you doing here, darling?” Elizabeth asked.

“We were supposed to spend the day together. Mother-daughter bonding, remember?”

Emily felt twelve again. How many times had her mother’s business caused her to forget things important to her daughter?

“Oh God, your birthday.” It dawned on Elizabeth. “Darling, I'm sorry, I truly forgot. But we can still have our day…Tom has to be at the hospital in two hours.”

“So this is why you stopped pushing Tom on me?” Emily asked.

“I stopped pushing him on you because you're the only one who thinks you're hiding your relationship with Aaron Hotchner.”

“Mother!”

“Don’t ‘mother’ me. And I had to hear this from Amelia. When will you both learn that you cannot hide things from your mothers?”

“How long have you and Tom been…biblical?”

“Emily…”

“What? It’s a viable question.”

Elizabeth sat down on the couch, crossing her leg. She ran her fingers through her hair.

“He asked me to have dinner last month, just as friends. I accepted and we had a lovely time. He was so attentive, smart, and really funny. It blew my mind when he kissed me. I don’t know the last time I enjoyed something like that; it was almost new again. I tried to decline, in my mind, but I didn’t really want to. Tom is a wonderful man, Emily, and he makes me feel that way as well.”

Emily couldn’t deny her mother that feeling. She knew how magnificent it was. Elizabeth was actually glowing. Emily had probably interrupted dessert before breakfast. She knew from how horny a man was in the morning. _Damn Mother_ , she thought as she sat beside her on the couch, _you go girl_.

“I would never deny you the opportunity to be adored.” Emily took her hand. “The man is making you breakfast…that’s nice. What about the clear conflict of interest?”

“I'm seeing Dr. Richard Grayson now. He’s the second best cardiologist in New England. I like him fine.”

“You like Tom more.” Emily gently nudged her mother’s shoulder with hers.

“Well darling, there is one little thing that’s been bothering me.” Elizabeth said.

“What's wrong?”

“Tom won't tell me how old he is. I'm so afraid that he’s much too young for me. I don’t want to be the subject of gossip; you know how Newberry can be. I'm afraid he’s not telling me because he knows I’ll turn him away when I find out the truth.”

“Pssh,” Emily waved her hand. “You don’t need him to tell you a thing. You can Google him.”

“What?”

“Where’s your laptop?” Emily asked.

Elizabeth got up, grabbed it from the bookshelf, and put it on the coffee table. Emily opened it, booting it up.

“This should be a snap.” She told her mother. It only took a minute or two to get online; CNN.com as the home page. Emily typed www.Google.com.

“You’ve never Google’d anyone, Mother?”

“Whatever for?”

“Shits and giggles.” Emily replied.

“No.” Elizabeth shook her head. “What if…?”

“He killed his first wife?” Emily asked.

“That wasn’t exactly what I was thinking but…yes.”

“Once its Google’d it can't be un-Google’d. Do you really want to do this?”

“Yes,” Her mother nodded. “I need to know; it’s driving me mad.”

“Well, the hospital’s website will probably come up first so we’ll click on that and ignore everything else.”

Emily typed in Dr. Thomas Barton CMC and hit enter. The CMC website came up first so she clicked on it. They looked at his picture and read the date of birth in his biography…12/7/1959.

“Whoa, he looks good for his age.” Emily said.

“Absolutely.” Elizabeth nodded. “Log off now, Emily; I've seen all I want to see.”

“Yes ma'am.” She logged off, shut down the computer, and closed it. “Do you feel better now?”

“Much. I don’t know if I’ll tell Tom that I know just yet. Thank you so much for helping me.”

“It’s not a problem.” Emily stood up. “I think I’ll leave you two to your breakfast.”

“Emily, I'm so sorry about our plans. I was looking forward to spending some quality time with you.”

“Well I can come back in a couple of hours since Tom is going to the hospital.” She looked at his watch. “How does one o’clock sound?”

“It sounds good.” Elizabeth smiled. She stood and kissed her daughter’s cheek.

“I'm also figuring that was Tom brewing coffee.”

“He has shown me the ecstasy of decaffeinated. What can I say?”

“You’ve said enough. That’s a very interesting choice of words, Mother.”

Emily left and Elizabeth went back to the kitchen. Tom hummed while he whisked egg whites for omelets. She could smell the turkey sausage baking in the oven.

“Is everything alright?” He looked at her.

“Yes.” She nodded.

“I'm sorry, Elizabeth.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?”

“I embarrassed you in front of your daughter. I know how important appearances are to you.”

“That’s surely not all I care about, Tom.”

He put the bowl on the counter and came to stand in front of her.

“I want to believe that because…”

“Because what?” Elizabeth closed her eyes as he caressed her face.

“Because I'm completely,” He kissed her nose. “And utterly,” He kissed her lips. “In awe of you.”

“I also know that you're fifty.”

“Forty-nine, Elizabeth.” He kissed her passionately. “Does it put your mind at ease?” He asked, his lips trailing down her neck. “Now that you know how old I am.”

“Why didn't you just tell me?”

“I didn’t want it to matter. It doesn’t matter; all that matters is that you enjoy breakfast. So, you should go upstairs and slide back under the covers because it’s almost done.”

Elizabeth smiled. She kissed him once more before going up the stairs. Tom was smiling too. He ran his fingers over his lips, grabbed the bowl, and hummed again.

***


End file.
